50'
MELQUIADEShas been cruising
the world since the 1990s. Here she is anchored off SW Ireland.

But first, look
at The
Animal Rescue Site. Click on it and a doggie gets a meal.
It's free! Do it every day! You'll feel good!

Ben and Crew crossed
the NW Passage (above ) in
IDLEWILD.They then went on
to circumnavigate the planet, including making the longest non-stop
voyage ever made in a power yacht! Tough guys them Canadians,
even if they do say "ay?" all the time. See more of
her in the STOCK PLANS section, and check out their wonderful
Web Site! And
finally, Ben has published a book about the trip. You can order
it here!

The Troller
Yacht Book is back in print! You can order it as a hardcover
book, an e-book, PDF, Kindle, and all those other formats out
there. Go to TrollerYachts.comfor ordering info and general NW lore!

In the 1990's Reg
Townsend designed a ship. I did some computer fairing on it and
arguing with him and we did his design. Reg went to Malaysia
and built her. Here's a series of photos documenting something
few of you will ever get a chance to see in this Brave New World;the building of a real wood
ship!

Congratulations
to Seahorse Yachts and "Peking", a 462
DIESEL DUCK, honored as People's
Choice Award "BEST IN SHOW"at the 2007 Mystic Trawlerfest. Check
out our companion site dieselducks.com
for more info!

"I purchased # 9 of the 462 series.
For any potential buyers this boat simply exceeds my expectations
for a couple of reasons; I suppose the first would be Bill Kimley
and his team in China who remain focused on utility and design
(as opposed to price); George Buehler who is uncompromising in
what his idea of a boat really is, but most importantly the owners
of the other 462's. I live in Point Roberts, WA and one owner
(M/V David Ellis) actually drove from Seattle to Point Roberts
to assess an electrical problem I was having ( which turned out
to be the marina's).

I don't have a lot of experience with smaller
boats, but I am a captain of much larger ships and myself and
two similarly qualified colleagues brought the 462 up from Ensenada,
Mexico in late October. Despite the fact that we had weather
that is probably pretty crumby by pleasure boats standards, I
felt equally secure in this boat as I would in one of the ships
that go up and down the coast on a regular basis".- David
King, 12/2010

41-Plus Diesel Duck PEPI,
by Asboat Yacht Building Ltd., in Turkey. Go to the DIESEL DUCKS sitefor more
info.

Forgive me but I was so impressed to see the
job Harry & Vickie did on the 48 DUCK they built of
wood that I have to show her off several times on my sites. You
can see the whole Building
this Ship photo essay at the Duck site. And, you
can Click
HERE to get to their "blog" where you can
follow their trip south!

I decided to devote an entire site
solely to our Diesel Duck Family. They've been hatching
out with different sizes and variations for some time now and
suddenly were threatening to take over this site. Well, now they
have their own where they are ALL that is discussed. I moved
all the other powerboat stuff that was on the OLD duck site to
this one. NOW perhaps I'll be able to do a better job of keeping
info current, and posted! So, for all the Diesel Duck stuff,
go to.........

Hello. Thanks for checking in on my site here.
I wish I could take credit for building it but I can't. My pal
Cheryl Thompson who is, if you'll forgive me sounding like a sexist
pig, that delightful combination in some women of being both gorgeous
and clever, built the original of this and laboriously taught
me how to maintain and add to it. Since those days "the net"
has exploded and now my sites are more read than my catalogs,
and over the last couple years we've added all sorts of stuff.
And now this year the sites have evolved into a very new look
for this, "Our Main Site," and the spin-off Diesel Ducks
site. And even though there's been such changes since the original,
I am still in awe of the whole thing and think it's incredible.
I mean look; here you are wherever you are; Iowa, Pogo Pogo, Egypt;
wherever, and you're reading this! It still overwhelms me......

I absolutely hate slow loading sites loaded
down with all sorts of PR. So we laid this out with plenty of
PR about my stuff all right, but did it so should load rapidly,
and be easy for you to skip about and read only what you want
to read about. You see a Menu Bar somewhere close to here that
gives you subjects you can read or see some detail about. Feel
free to print them out if you'd like.

Another thing I hate is big sites like this
that I look at now and then to see if there's been any changes.
Usually there hasn't been.... So, what I've done here is note
at the very top of the page the date of the last edit or addition.
These will almost always be in thePhotos & Drawings,
Random Thoughts, or What's New section. If you flip
there you'll see a date saying when the last change happened,
starting with the next change I do to it. Seems this will make
it easier for you to check back now and then if you're interested
in what we're doing around here.

Anyway, scattered throughout this site you'll
see some drawings and photos of boats of my design. If you 'click'
on them they'll get bigger. I like all kinds of boats; there are
no absolutes I've come to realize, and more important, no boat
is 'practical'. So lets not pretend; a boat is a toy, a fantasy,
a thing to have fun with. If your fantasy is a 60' gaff rigged
schooner or a 12' skiff or a cruising powerboat, that's OK. Each
is perfectly valid. That's the bottom line, you see. Being valid
for YOU. A boat is a statement of expression. Are you a rather
timid, rigid, uptight, unimaginative and careful person with a
new plastic production boat, or, are you a rugged individual,
hair flowing in the breeze, billowing shirt, knowing deep inside
that had you but been born 300 years ago, why, you'd be a swashbuckler,
with a 'one off' boat. I'm sorry; but look. After watching several
people I am close to go through some awful medical problems, I
now concentrate on things that amuse or interest me. This site
is written with that in mind. I'm very serious about some things,
but being alive, well, it's so brief, and fragile too, you know.
Enjoy it! This site is about boats, boats that you can, while
around them at least, simply tune out the stark unpleasantness
that is lurking just around some not to distant corner.

There are of course some fine production boats
out there. But the world of custom design is infinitely wider;
not just my designs but many people's designs stretching back
for over a hundred or more years now (WOW have you ever stopped
to ponder just how NEW 'civilization' and most technology and
things we take totally for granted, actually IS???? I mean, how's
this; my dad lived in a sod house, until the family could afford
to build the "real" house, on the ranch in North Dakota
that his dad, my grandfather, homesteaded) .

Here's my father on
Comet, back in the 1930's, on my grandfather's farm and cattle
ranch. Started with a sod hut homestead, in it's prime the ranch
was 24,000 acres, and the family did cattle drives "to the
rail head" just like a John Wayne movie. Dad was in his
30s when this was shot. He always was a gay blade!

This of course is a 'commercial' site in that
its purpose to show, and hopefully sell, you on my yacht designs.
No sense in pretending otherwise. So keep that in mind as you
look over my stuff. I'm talking about my design services here.
And, by the way, thanks! I appreciate your interest in my designs.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write
or email me! You can telephone but I have very sporadic office
hours although if you leave a message we'll try to get back to
you. Please, don't ask me to define my business approach. But
at least, we do have a lot of fun around here!!

If you telephone here you might be answered
by The Lovely Susan who for 20 years held this place together,
keeping track of orders, making sure we have whatever we need;
books, paper, mailing supplies, meanwhile doing all the other
things that simply overwhelm me but she can deal with. There's
an old saying that goes something like; "behind every successful
man is a strong, smart, pushy woman." I always thought Ronald
Reagan was proof of that until one day I realized that without
Gail I'd likely be in cut-offs laying about on a beach somewhere
hyther & yon, and without Susan my office would be a disaster.
So I'm proof of it too. Unfortunately the world changed. So much
of what this office sends out is via email files requiring less
and less printing. And of course Mr. Bush's economy didn't help
either. So now days Susan comes handles things when I'm out of
town, but otherwise just comes in when I am overwhelmed. Like
"reconciling" or whatever it's called, our checking
account.

Two of the many moods of TLS (The
Lovely Susan)

Oh; if you're not to familiar with navigating
cluttered web sites, when you see a word or sentence underlinedand/or in bold print it usually means it's a link to
a photo or story and if you "click" it, you'll magically
see whatever it is appear!